Traditional Malay medicine dictates that “kacip fatimah” (or Selusoh fatimah, Rumput siti fatimah, Akar fatimah, Kachit fatimah, Kachip fatimah, Kachip patimah, Kunchi fatimah, Pokok pinggang, Rumput palis, Tadah mata hari, Mata pelandok rimba, Bunga belangkas hutan), as disclosed in Burkhill (1993) is used much in childbirth. A detection of the plant is given not only after childbirth as a protective medicine, but before to expedite labour. Additional uses include being given for flatulence, dysentery, dysmenorrhoea, gonorrhoea and “sickness in the bones”.
While there is now an increasing demand for the supply of “kacip fatimah” (Labisia pumila syn. Labisia pothoina) in the food industries, the reproducibility of extraction processes is still in doubt due to the lack of reliable chemical profiling methods.